


Love in a Photograph

by aintweproudriff



Series: Race, Spot, Albert, and Elmer [18]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Descriptions of bullying, M/M, missy is a good sister, takes place before the wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 05:14:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15112535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintweproudriff/pseuds/aintweproudriff
Summary: How Elmer got his crushorMissy shows Elmer the slideshow that will be played at his wedding, and one picture sparks some unhappy memories.





	Love in a Photograph

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, second fic in two days I'm on a roll. Don't expect me to keep it up. 
> 
> I really actually miss writing the wedding. This was a fun way to get back into the swing of it.

“Elmer,” Missy sat down next to him. “Katherine is becoming a maid of honor dictator, and making us make an iMovie of all the pictures we have of you over the last, like, thirteen years of the relationship.”

“Okay,” Elmer said hesitantly. He didn’t like reminders that the relationship was longer than ten years old and that his fiances had been dating for three years before he joined, but he had resigned himself to the fact that those three years couldn’t be undone. “And?”

“And I wanted to make sure you were good with what we made. And I wanted to show it to you before the wedding day, so that you don’t cry too hard at it during the actual showing of it.”

Elmer flushed, knowing that she was right. He was going to cry on his wedding day, but he may as well try and minimize the tears that actually ended up flowing. “Shut up and show me.”

She laughed at him, pressed play, and a pink screen flashed the words “Sean, Albert, Anthony, and Elmer’s Wedding: March 10, 2018”. 

He grinned in spite of himself. He couldn’t believe this was happening. 

A song started playing, soft and slow, with xylophone and piano sounds. He recognized it once the words started being sung: an accoustic version of "I Like Me Better".  
Pictures began to flash on the screen.  
A selfie of them in Spot and Elmer's dorm room in college, all curled up on the couch. The four of them with Jack, Davey, Crutchie, and Ivy. Spot, Albert, and Race in high school, back when Albert had emo hair. The four of them on the day that Race surprised them with their honeymoon destination. Elmer felt tears starting to prick his eyes as he watched and the song declared that it felt like the room had no ceiling.  
Another selfie of all of them at the children's hospital, wearing Santa hats and posing in front of garland. Again from college, the four of them sitting on the grass under a tree. A picture of the wedding rings in their boxes. The four of them posing with Rosie, less than a week after they took her in. Another of Elmer's fiances in high school, playing Mario Kart.  
And then-  
A picture he'd never seen before. But he remembered the day it was taken vividly.  
He reached out and paused the video. 

"Missy," he said slowly. "Where did you get that picture from?"

She glared at the computer. "Y'know, I think that was one of the ones from Jack. He put it in as one of the pictures that had to be in the video."

Elmer rubbed his thumbs over his fingers and palms. "Jack is an asshole."

"Yeah, well, what's new?" Missy laughed. "What's the big deal over this picture?"

Elmer looked back at it. "Look at it. What do you see?"

"Um, it's you and your boys. Spot's got his arm ‘round your shoulders, and Race and Albert are on the other side of you. Albert's reaching across Race to touch your knee and look up at your face, and Race is looking lovingly at Albert." She took a breath. "You look so young, oh my god. You're outside on a bench, and you're - oh wow. You're crying, and you've got a hand on Albert's hand."

"Yeah, I think you get the picture," Elmer swallowed, choking back a sob. "But you don't know what happened, do you?"  
Missy had been such an important person for him during high school. He'd forgotten that he'd kept this incident hidden from even her. 

"Right. Shit, okay. Um, story time," he took a deep breath in. "So this picture was taken in high school, and the four of us didn't get together until college. But the three of them were together, right?"

Missy nodded slowly. 

"Actually, when this picture was taken, I was still dating Alex. You remember Alex, right?"

"He was your best friend through all of high school."

He shook his head. "You're right, you're right. Of course you remember. I'm just. Ugh. So I was dating Alex, and he was on the football team that year."

"Your freshman year?" she asked, and he nodded. "Jesus, that's why you look so young. You were a baby."

He let out a puff of air. It was the closest thing he could get to a laugh. He had been a baby. He didn't deserve that shit.

"So anyway, Alex was on the football team. And he was good enough, but the guys on the team didn't like that he was dating a guy. You know how sports are. Um. So Alex went out of town for a few days, I think to visit a college out of state. Remember how his parents were super big on college and all that? He took the SAT and ACT in like seventh grade."

"I remember," she nodded. "Stop stalling and get to the point."

"Sorry. A bunch of the football guys thought it would be really funny to mess with Alex's - you know the word they used," he choked out, unable to get himself to say the word. "They didn't like Alex much because he was dating me, but they hated me for dating him. So they wanted to fuck with me, but they didn't dare to do it when Alex was around. They thought he would have hurt them, since he was a football dude, you know? So the second he wasn't at school, they pounced."

"Oh my god," Missy whispered. "Did they hurt you?"

"Not physically," he answered. "It got close a few times, but um. All they did was call me names. A few times they threw stuff at me, or made like, motions that were supposed to show being gay or whatever. They liked to follow me around at lunch and do it. And, um, without Alex, I kinda didn't have any friends I could talk to about it. So I ended up just letting it happen for a few days."

"You didn't tell anyone?"

He shook his head. "Didn't know who to tell."

"And then?"

"And then. Um, they were following me around at lunch, and I just lost it. I totally broke down in a panic attack. Crying, hyperventilating, the whole deal. I fell down on the concrete, scraped up my hands real bad. They were about to take advantage of my position, but Race yelled at them.” The memory made Elmer’s hand shake. “Just started fucking hollering. Albert joined in, yelling insults and calling them cowards and homophobes. Spot came up and stood in front of me, and I don’t really remember what he said or what he did, but eventually the football players went away. And they walked me over to the bench by the door to the school, and that’s the picture. They talked me down from the panic attack, and were really kind about the whole thing. And I put my hand on Albert’s hand, like that,” he pointed at the screen, “and it was just like electricity; through my hand and to my heart. I definitely think I had a crush on Albert first, but it really didn’t take long for the other crushes to form after that. This photo, though, is me getting a crush on Albert. I can’t believe Jack got a picture of this.”

He looked up from the screen to see Missy’s smile, but when he looked up, he realized that he had been so immersed in the photo and the story that he hadn’t even heard Spot, Race, and Albert walk in. There they were, standing silently behind Missy, sad smiles across all of their faces. He smiled back at them. 

“You never told us that, El,” Albert said, and the love was obvious in his voice. 

“Yeah, well.” He shrugged. “It’s what happened.”

Spot shook his head. “I’m glad we did that then. I mean, I’d be glad anyway, ‘cause we helped you. But knowin’ that makes it more-”

“-meaningful.” Race finished his sentence. 

“Yeah,” Spot whispered. “That.”

“Well, don’t get a big head or anything,” Elmer smiled, trying to relieve the tension. “You guys still made me work to get here, so it’s not like you won me over in a day.”

“Ahhh,” Race waved his hand, as if batting the idea out of the air. “You love us.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much already! If you want to make my day, leave a kudo and/or comment. Or come say hi on tumblr @allbesolucky and @javidblue!


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